Are 2-Year Colleges the Path to Jobs?

Canada is finding that its system of community colleges is better at preparing students for employment than its traditional four-year universities. And students who are ready to enter the workforce prefer shorter, more specific degree programs over required courses in underwater basket weaving and philosophical systems of the 18th century. Community colleges are more nimble, able to respond faster to industry when it needs workers trained for specific tasks, such as video game design which has become big business in Toronto.

What's the Big Idea?

The American economic crisis is partly an education crisis in two main areas: cost and job preparedness. Currently, many Americans who leave four-year degree programs are heavily indebted, leaving them without the resources necessary to create new economic engines like independent businesses. And the American tradition of a liberal arts education, while surely having its own merits, leaves many without the practical skills which today's industries, changing at an ever-faster rate due to technological advance, truly need.